Comcast takes more channels away from analog viewers

Comcast has removed three more channels from its standard analog service in Lincoln and Springfield, a move the cable provider said would make way for more high-definition channels and on-demand programming.

By Brian Mackey

Lincoln Courier

By Brian Mackey

Posted Nov. 12, 2008 at 12:01 AM
Updated Nov 12, 2008 at 11:17 AM

By Brian Mackey

Posted Nov. 12, 2008 at 12:01 AM
Updated Nov 12, 2008 at 11:17 AM

Springfield, Ill.

Comcast has removed three more channels from its standard analog service in Lincoln and Springfield, a move the cable provider said would make way for more high-definition channels and on-demand programming.

As of Tuesday, C-SPAN2, MTV2 and SOAPnet are only available on digital cable.

Rich Ruggiero, a spokesman for Comcast, said the switch is part of a statewide effort to standardize channel lineups across Comcast’s markets.

“It’s been one of our goals, over the course of the year — and this is a process that will take even longer — to make our lineups more consistent throughout our service area,” Ruggiero said.

The channels that were moved had been in Comcast’s “Basic” analog tier (Channels 2-23) and its “Expanded” analog tier (Channels 24-72).

C-SPAN2, which had been at Channels 14 and 446, will now only be available at 446. It’s still in the Basic tier, but a digital receiver is needed, which Ruggiero said could be obtained for an additional $1.13 per month.

Adding a digital receiver would also give viewers access to the on-screen program guide and some on-demand programs.

The price for Basic and Expanded analog service is not changing.

MTV2 had been at Channels 61 and 806, and SOAPnet had been at Channels 66 and 127 — both are now only available at their three-digit homes in the “Digital Classic” package.

That brings to six the number of channels Comcast has moved from analog to digital-only in recent months. During the summer, the company moved the National Geographic Channel, Ion and EWTN to digital-only status. The Big Ten Network replaced National Geographic, but the other five channels remain blank.

That change brought a letter of protest from Holy Family parish to the Lincoln City Council. The letter said many of its members could no longer watch EWTN, which is a Catholic-based channel, without paying an additional fee.

For every analog channel moved to digital-only, Ruggiero said, Comcast can add two or three HD channels as well as on-demand content. He said Comcast plans to add three HD channels by the end of the year, but was “not in a position to talk about (them) today.”

Ruggiero also said that in the coming months, Comcast would expand its on-demand offerings to include HD.

In some markets, including Chicago, Comcast has moved its entire Expanded analog lineup to digital — the equivalent of Channels 24-72 in Lincoln and Springfield. That may happen here eventually, but Ruggiero said it was not planned “anywhere in the near future.”

“These changes really aren’t part of that effort at all, but are just about aligning the lineup and giving us the ability to launch more HD faster,” Ruggiero said.

He added that Basic and Expanded analog cable is still a “tremendous entertainment value,” with dozens of channels for about $2 a day.

Fehr said she doesn’t watch many of the channels she has to pay for, and only subscribes to the Expanded tier in order to get Nickelodeon and the Disney Channel for her children.

“I don’t have a Wii, my kids don’t have all those handheld games and everything, so I suck it up and pay for that,” Fehr said. “But I don’t really want to, and it’s getting to the point where ... I can’t afford to do that much anymore.”

Comcast does not disclose how many customers in a given market have digital cable, but Ruggiero said the figure is 69 percent among its customers nationwide.

That said, even if people have a digital receiver on their main TV, they might have TVs in the kitchen or bedroom that rely on analog connections. Ruggiero said there is no way to count how many televisions still rely on analog connections.

Last week, The Associated Press reported that the Federal Communications Commission had opened an investigation into Comcast and other major cable providers over this issue.

“I’m certainly concerned with the increasing cable prices that consumers are facing,” FCC Chairman Kevin Martin told the AP. “They are getting less and being charged the same or more.”

Martin said it also appears consumers weren’t given “appropriate notice” about the channel changes. He said the FCC has received a “significant” number of consumer complaints about the practice of moving analog channels to digital tiers of service, which has accelerated this year.

The FCC has asked companies being probed to submit information about their pricing and channel-switching practices by the end of this week.

For his part, C-SPAN spokesman Peter Kiley was diplomatic. Comcast, as the nation’s largest cable provider, is the public-affairs network’s largest financial backer, and Comcast Chief Operating Officer Stephen Burke is on the executive committee of C-SPAN’s board of directors.

“Comcast and the other major cable companies have held off, for a good long time, from moving our public-service channels from analog to digital. At this stage, after they have already moved in some markets dozens of channels, it’s frankly our turn to participate in this migration,” Kiley said Tuesday in a telephone interview.

He said the short-term pain of reduced availability was the cost of preparing networks for more high-definition programming. Kiley added that C-SPAN is preparing to roll out an HD channel within the next year.